I am leaving for BT (basic training) on the 14th at Fort Jackson where I won’t have access to the internet until December, so this blog will be on hold (not that it was undated regularly anyways). Hopefully I will have some great material to write about when I get back like the status of anime fandom in the US armed forces or my trials and tribulations of getting access to my fansub addic- err hobby while in a restricted and regulated environment. I suspect that the streaming video sites like YouTube and crunchyroll that I use to scoff at will become my new best friend.. my eyes are going to get ruined squinting at that low rez crap <.<

This is a terrible time to be shipping out, the fall 2008 anime just started and several shows have piqued my interest and I am going to miss the entire season and the beginning of Winter as well =/ What happens in Ga-Rei Zero after the “Nice Coffee” massacre? Does Toradora continue the awesomeness of the second episode? Can GAINAX deliver the awesomeness with Shikabane and how does the MIL- err Sanae let Sunohara down gently after their fake “date”. And what the hell is going on in Chaos;head? I’ll be pondering these questions while shivering my butt off in the muck and cold while you guys are watching your torrented ill-gotten illegal fansubs in the comfort and warmth of your homes in front of your computers.. I haet you all :o(

At least when I get to AIT (Advanced Individual Training) I will have be able to bring a laptop.. maybe it would be a good time to change my desktop to something less .. cute. bai bai Horo =/

After three months of forgetting this blog’s existence, I’m back.What prompted this return post is a podcast called Anime World Order, I discovered them a while back upon the recommendation of some online friends who swore they found an anime podcast that doesn’t suck. The hosts are old school fans who know their shit, their commentary aren’t noobish like the ones found on most message boards, and for the most part the audio is bearable.For those who are late to the party like me, give them a listen.

One of their occasional segments is The Search for THE TRUTH where they interview anime con goers (to mock mercilessly on their show), and one of their questions was “other than Hayao Miyazaki, can you name three anime directors?”I laughed at the yokels for their failure to name any.. until I tried to name a few myself and panicked for a few seconds before random Japanese names started popping into my head and I managed to crap out enough to not entirely embarrass myself.

So how many can you name (without cheating), why aren’t their names more well known among the general anime community, and how important are these guys really?I’ve seen many posts of “lol it’s made by GONZO so it is gonna suck”, but shouldn’t the blame really be placed on the director instead?In the future I am going to pay more attention to the people working on the cartoons I’m watching (and not just the voice actresses with cute voices). May this new found resolve last longer then my last one to keep this blog alive and active?

And for the record, the directors I could name are:

Hayao Miyazaki

Shinichi Watanabe (these first two really shouldn’t count..)

Satoshi Kon

Goro Miyazaki (only because of the conflict with his father, that famous guy)